Bugs and Movies

This blog has an educational scope. It has been created as an index for the movie fragments that you can watch at "Bugs & Movies" youtube channel. The blog has no comercial purpose, and the images are from public web pages, but in case of copyright problems, please, indicate it in the comments and they will be deleted as soon as possible

Friday, February 11, 2011

The "Andromeda Strain" is a 1971 science-fiction film, based on the novel published in 1969 by Michael Crichton. Probably is the best "microbiological" movie. The film is about a team of scientists who investigate a deadly organism of extraterrestrial origin that causes rapid, fatal blood clotting. But Andromeda has other surprises. This clip includes the famous scene of the "death monkey".

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

The "Andromeda Strain" is a 1971 science-fiction film, based on the novel published in 1969 by Michael Crichton. Probably is the best "microbiological" movie. The film is about a team of scientists who investigate a deadly organism of extraterrestrial origin that causes rapid, fatal blood clotting. But Andromeda has other surprises. In this fragment, we can see the different sterilization and aseptic procedures taken as a precaution to avoid external contamination. Nowadays we know that some of these creates more harm than good, as for example the removal of the skin and intestinal microbiota. In this fragment there is also a interesting reference to the Bracewell probe, the possibility that an alien lifeform could be use as a comunication device.

Monday, February 7, 2011

The "Andromeda Strain" is a 1971 science-fiction film, based on the novel published in 1969 by Michael Crichton. Probably is the best "microbiological" movie. The film is about a team of scientists who investigate a deadly organism of extraterrestrial origin that causes rapid, fatal blood clotting. But Andromeda has other surprises. In this fragment, Dr Stones describes the Wildfire laboratory.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

The "Andromeda Strain" is a 1971 science-fiction film, based on the novel published in 1969 by Michael Crichton. Probably is the best "microbiological" movie. The film is about a team of scientists who investigate a deadly organism of extraterrestrial origin that causes rapid, fatal blood clotting. But Andromeda has other surprises.

In 1984 it was described that this fungus produced a dermatitis in people of Scandinavian descent. Unfortunately I couldn't found the original article. Instead I found this one about the relation of sensitivity towards A. pullulans with the severity of asthma attacks.

Aureobasidium pullulans is famous because it's a fungus of biotechnological interest. Its main product is pullulan, a polysaccharide used in food and pharmaceutical industries to produce oxygen-impermeable protective films. But it also produces a variety of degrading enzymes such as amylase, proteases and xylanase.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Alltough with some exagerations (It's showbusiness!) one must recognize that CSI series are on the top when we talking about science, entertainment and TV.

In the episode "cuckoo's nest" from "CSI, New York", the CSI team discover fibers of "Greensulate". Fungal growth on agriculture residues renders this new biomaterial that can be a substitute for styrofoam. Here is the link to the company: Ecovative design. This is a good example of embeded marketing from a biotech company.